


Volens nolens

by Krocodile_lord



Category: Oban Star-Racers
Genre: Angst and Humor, M/M, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-17
Updated: 2019-03-17
Packaged: 2019-11-21 19:51:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18146684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Krocodile_lord/pseuds/Krocodile_lord
Summary: It's simple: either life is clean and easy, or it's not. It is time for Wei to decide which it will be for him.





	Volens nolens

**Author's Note:**

> English will be crusty, be prepared.

“If you could change one thing in your life, what would it be?”  
Don glanced at a tv working in a living room. It was a rerun of an old, old show about stupid people getting tangled up in situations far beyond their control and then hurt themselves in trying to get out of it unharmed. The host was always a little bit too happy about poor morons getting served their poetic justice. Don never particularly enjoyed this show.  
“Eva? Remember what I said about leaving the tv on?” - he called into the hall. He waited for an annoyed grunt that didn’t came. “Eva?” - he yelled again.  
He heard Eva’s shriek and then laughter mixed with masculine voice coming from out of their backyard. 

Rick was showing Eva something hidden in his outstretched hand, and Eva either didn’t appreciated or appreciated it in her own way, ducking and squealing when Rick tried to put something on her head.  
“I thought you liked baby animals”, - said Rick.  
“That’s not a baby animal, that’s a worm!”, - laughed Eva.  
Don was standing near the opened backdoor, and thought he was hidden in the dark hall, until Rick called to him:  
“Don, what have you been teaching this girl? She thinks these guys are worms, see?”  
Don blinked and looked at a pale croissant in Rick’s hand.   
“It-it has legs?”, - said Don weakly.  
Rick snorted, then turned and threw the weird croissant into the bushes. Eva squealed “GROSS!!” and ran to Don when Rick pretended to wipe his hand on her shirt.  
Personally, Don thought himself lucky that no one commented on Rick asking ‘what have you been teaching this girl’. ‘I have been teaching her something alright’, -thought Don with masochistic pleasure, -’How awful parents can be’.

“If you could change one thing in your life, what would it be?”

“Rick thinks lawns are ugly”, - said Eva with her mouth full of potatoes, “He said he’d want a bunch of trees and flowers and even tomatoes and stuff. And I agree! I want jungles”.  
“Don’t talk, chew”, - said Don, - “and anyway, we can’t make jungles here. The committee only allows three types of grass, two types of flowerbeds and only one plastic flamingo per three square meters. But it’s not as though they don’t allow us express ourselves - see, I decided to forego the flamingoes entirely.”  
Rick started laughing and then noticed Eva and Don’s faces.  
“Wait, you guys serious?” 

“I didn’t know you liked plants so much”, - said Eva, laying across the sofa and kicking its sidearm for fun.  
“Me neither”, - said Rick, turning the pages of an exceedingly boring book Don had lying around, - “but we all keep learning new things about ourselves. For example, you learned that this whole time, you were actually a mouse.”  
Eva guffawed and kicked the sofa harder: “I’m so happy you helped me discover myself!”  
Rick usually liked to play it cool, but now grinned so much his face hurt. He didn’t want to think about having to leave one day, so he didn’t. He wanted to have these moments of joy and solace untouched by his darker thoughts.

“Call a doctor!”, - Don told panicked Eva, - “Zero-one! Zero-one, all right?”  
“I know!”, - squealed Eva, trying to not drop the phone from her hands, wet with sweat.   
Rick was lying on the floor, his sunglasses dropped, Don kneeling near him, going over everything he knew about handling the seizures. Eva was almost crying, which distantly surprised him - he somehow expected it to go other way around.   
“It’s gonna be alright, honey”, - he told to the universe itself, it seems.   
Just as Eva told the medics their address, Rick finally came to.   
“How do you feel?” - asked Don gently.  
“Like… like I was run over by... “ - weakly said Rick, then touched his head and groaned. One of his green eyes was bloodshot. “Damn, can’t believe it happened again.”  
“It was so sudden!” - Eva clutched the phone, - “I feel so stupid, I couldn’t help…”  
“Dear, it’s all right”, - stopped her Don, - “Rick, the medics will be here soon”.  
Rick covered his face with his hands and groaned.   
Eva gasped. “Oh no, I think I stepped on his sunglasses”.

A few days later, Rick got a haircut.   
“Wow”, - was all Eva could mutter. Don silently agreed with her.   
“That’s nothing, little mouse. Just wait for about twenty years, and one day I’ll be completely bald”, - said Rick, raking his hand through his cropped hair, which admittedly accentuated his high cheekbones rather nicely.  
“So you thought you’d start getting used to it now?” - Don raised an eyebrow.  
“I like to be prepared”, - said Rick lightly, - “and you guys should be prepared to find shorter hairs in your breakfast! Now no one will know for sure which one of us is at fault”.  
“You are so GROSS!” - laughed Eva, slapping his arm.

“Have you ever had a secret… that you never told me?”, - asked Eva one day.  
Rick shrugged:  
“Depends. I’ve had a lot of secrets, and I forgot most of them.”  
Eva bit the inside of her cheek and peered thoughtfully at him:  
“But do you have… recent secrets?”  
She looked really bashful.  
“Oh all right”, - sighed Rick, - “I guess I ate your chocolate paste”.  
“Ri-ick! I wasn’t talking about - oh! So it was you!”  
“Ow! I deserved it”, - admitted Rick, when a pillow hit his head.  
‘I knew that article was dumb. Rose is dumb’, - thought Eva.  
There was a small article on Wei family, or “Europe’s most stereotypical gay couple”. Whoever wrote this article congratulated Rick Thunderbolt on his promotion and was wondering how long his new contract with sugar daddy Don Wei last.  
Eva’s face dropped when one of her classmates, girl named Rose, showed her this piece.  
“That is DISGUSTING, Rose!”, - yelled Eva, - “My dad is a lot of things, but he’s not- not strety-!”  
“Oh, drop it, how would you know?” - Rose rolled her eyes.  
“I live there!”  
“Oh, duh. But it’s easier to see the whole picture once you’re further away, no?”  
Eva tried to ignore her, but she then caught herself watching dad and Rick. Whatever was going on between them, she was looking at it from the wrong distance, since she could never see anything stereotypically sugary, or whatever it was called.  
She was content for a while, but then realized that the idea that upset her the most was Don throwing Rick out. She never wanted to see it happen. She felt like her heart, broken after mom, was even more fragile now than on Oban. Maybe it made sense to fear for something she worked so hard to gain.

One week after Rick got a haircut, Don woke up in the dead of the night. Feeling tired and restless, he sighed and rose, looking out of the opened window. The sky was so dark.   
He put on a robe and quietly walked out of his study he used as a bedroom after… well. He didn’t need a big bed, and he always was a utilitarian sort.   
The light was on in the hall downstairs, and Don stood, watching Rick put on his jacket, a bag with his things near him.  
“Good night for a walk”, - called Don, walking down the stairs. If Rick was startled, he didn’t show it.  
“Not a bad one, yeah”, - he said, zipping the jacket up.  
Don crossed his arms, coldly looking at Rick’s back.  
“So. You’re leaving”, - said Don accusatory.   
“Guess I am”.  
Rick didn’t even turn around. It’s like he didn’t even care how cold and deadly Don’s stare was. How was he so impossible?  
“In the dead of the night, like a… a total creep”, - continued Don much more lamely.  
“It’s easier that way, you know”.  
“Incidentally, I do know!” - Don realised his voice started trembling, - “Incidentally, I do understand what it’s like for you, incidentally, I did ran from it, just like you!”  
“Did it work?” - Rick’s voice was low.  
“If you want to know - I crawled back on my knees.”  
“I’ll be sure to get knee pads then”, - Rick grabbed the bag, - “Tell mouse I said…”  
“I won’t”, - hissed Don, digging his nails into his palms, - “Tell her yourself!”  
“Well that’s unfortunate”, - sighed Rick, then grabbed a piece of paper, - “I’ll write her a note. Lend me a pen, will you?”  
Fear and longing rushed through Don, flooded his senses, clutched his insides. He grabbed Rick’s calloused hand in his own, cold as ice.  
“Please, don’t go”, - he whispered. Round brown eyes, wide with fear, abandoned little girl, please, don’t.  
If you could change one little thing - what would it be? Don’t let her race anymore, don’t break so easily, don’t abandon her, never meet you.  
Rick’s eyes met his own. They look so empty, and the right one is still a bit red.  
“I have to, though”, - he said gently.  
“Marry me”, - said Don.  
They stared at each other, Rick still holding the piece of paper, Don still holding Rick’s hand.  
“That’s funny”, - Rick said slowly, “I thought you just said…”  
“Marry me”, - repeated Don, his eyes slightly glassy. Rick slowly lowered his gaze onto his hand in Don’s palm.   
“You-”, - he couldn’t find words, - “You are a strange- STRANGE man, Don Wei- why did you think to- how do you think- oh, damn. Yes, alright.”  
“Alright?” - repeated Don, his eye twitched.  
“I’ll marry you, why not.”

Eva sat in the darkness of a broom closet, listening to them intently. Then she heard them walk up the stairs - each to separate rooms, by the way, - and said “Wow”.  
She wished badly there was someone to talk to, someone who’d react appropriately.   
“How does one reach the Avatar?” - she thought, creeping back to her room.

Another week later, that same episode played on tv. Don stared at the smug black-and-white face of the host as he said “If you could change one thing in your life, what would it be?”.  
“The channel”, - mumbled Don, grabbing the remote and turning it off.  
“Cute one-liner”, -snorted Rick. Don turned on his heels:  
“You weren’t supposed to hear it”.  
“We all do things we’re not supposed to do”, - Rick said wisely, - “For example, I let Eva choose the color for the house.”  
“No!” - blurted Don out.  
“It’s pink now”.  
Don sat on a sofa’s sidearm, defeated.  
“What is it with Weis and sofas? Sit like a human”, - said Rick.  
“Why did you said “yes”?” - asked Don.  
“She asked if she could and my brain was turned off for that one moment-”  
“When I asked you to marry me”, - explained Don, - “I didn’t know you would… I didn't know you’re even attracted to me.”  
Rick shrugged:  
“That’s the thing. I didn’t even think about it until you said that. Maybe I was, just didn’t realize it. Maybe I wasn’t and then you changed my mind”.  
“Maybe your brain was turned off for that one moment”, - corners of Don’s mouth were turned slightly upwards, either he’s biting back laughter or tears. Rick realized suddenly that one day, he’ll know exactly which it is.  
“Don’t worry. My brain is in perfect condition right now, and it tells me to kiss you.”  
And so he did. 

THE END.

P.S.:  
“Were you eating Eva's chocolate paste again?” - asked Don.


End file.
